Seizing Moments: Calvin Klein’s Iconicity & JAW
Is capturing moments enough to be an iconic brand?
“HE IS THE MOMENT!”
That’s an Instagram comment on the recent Calvin Klein commercial featuring Jeremy Allen White, summing up today’s brandscape. It is all about seizing moments!
We live in a “moments” era. Every celebrity, brand, creator, show, and idea strives to “seize the moment” in a highly crowded marketplace, spending millions to capture fleeting attention across platforms. Seeking nods, winks, side eyes, or even frowns from audiences, tribes, or fandoms. Recently, Jeremy Allan White (JAW afterwards) had his moment in the spotlight with the popular Bear show on Hulu and a recent Golden Globe award. As JAW becomes the moment, it’s no surprise brands want to ride that wave. Calvin Klein’s recent ad had its own moment, capitalizing on JAW’s current fame. Indeed, I was planning to write about another moment. But, when Calvin Klein (CK) moment took over, I had to give in. After all, it’s all about moments — for everyone.
Social media and the blogosphere are buzzing with comments to the “eye-candy” commercial. Agency professionals discuss the spot’s creative strategy, others reflect on the merit of those discussions, and some simply revel in the raw sensuality, admiring JAW’s rugged and unpolished undress. Although I desire to belong to the last group admiring the perfect imperfections of JAW, my cultural strategist hat brought me in front of the screen to approach the spot more from an iconicity angle. Passionate curiosity is a curse and a gift… Mostly a gift. 😇
Let’s briefly address tensions the commercial and comments raised. Will capturing the JAW moment sustain CK as an iconic brand? Will virality of the spot warrant its cultural impact?
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCbM009btVI ]
1. IDEA or NOT?
Sir John Hegarty, the former creative founder of BBH Agency, recently critiqued Calvin Klein’s latest commercial on LinkedIn. While acknowledging its strengths in aesthetics, casting, and music, Hegarty argued that the ad lacks a central idea. According to him, a successful ad should express a truth or insight, emphasizing the need for creatives to embrace the dictionary definition of an idea: “A thought or plan formed by mental effort.”
Hegarty’s critique gains significance, considering his prominent role in BBH’s “accidental” global popularization of Y-front boxer shorts. This “accident” is explored later in this blog in Levi’s story and will shed more light on his emphasis on the “idea.”
The ongoing debate on social media questions whether an underwear commercial, or any commercial, requires a central idea or purpose. Some agencies challenged Hegarty’s assessment, citing concerns about the male gaze and its credibility for this particular commercial. In contrast, a more third-wave feminist perspective from female audiences appreciates the aesthetics of Jeremy Allen White (JAW) and criticizes male media experts for their biased assessment.
Applauding the female gaze and any commercial supporting it — with or without a central idea expressed in the creative strategy and creative brief. But, the question remains: Should the ads — let alone an underwear ad — have an idea? Not necessarily. But, iconic brands do and should. The conviction and execution of this central idea through creative cultural codes are how these brands move the needle in the culture and also in business outcomes. Thats why Hegarty’s critique becomes more insightful when reflecting on BBH’s success with iconic Levi’s campaigns in the UK in the late ’90s. [Case Study: Levis at the end of the blog]
Read the rest of the blog on my Cultural Faultlines newsletter on Substack.